What is a Real, or Battle Ready Sword?

Posted by
SAWboss
on April 27, 2014

What is a Real or Battle Ready Sword?

All edged weapons, including Battle Ready or display, may injure and or kill another person or animal. All swords, real or display can and/or will become damaged if used improperly. Follow these do's and don'ts to safely enjoy your sword(s) for years to come.

Use common sense. Do not swing any edged weapon carelessly. Keep in mind that your sword, battle ready or not, is still a potential weapon that can injure or kill someone. Although we all have a "warrior" inside of us, we are not always on a battlefield. Make sure you are in an area where you can swing your sword without hitting someone or something. Swords can also slip out of your hands. You should be mindful of your environment when using your sword. An accidental collision with a ceiling fan can be damaging to both your sword and your fan. Be very careful and use common sense when handling your sword.

Do not bang your sword against another sword in theatrical-style duel. Do not bang your sword against any hard object to test its strength or the "sound" of the steel as it hits a hard object. No matter how tough or strong the steel is in any sword, it will nick when struck against something equally hard. In stage plays or in movies, stage swords with wide, thick edges are used. The edges are flat and often as much as 1/16 inches thick. Such reenactment swords are designed to take the flashy looking punishment of banging edges together. Unless you have purchased a stage sword, your sword is a real weapon, designed so that they could fight in the manner that the originals were actually used. Since the cutting edges could easily be sharpened and were often used for slashing, parries were made with the flat of the blade (not the edges) or were simply avoided altogether. Real swords were never used for the theatrical style sword banging that movies or stage plays rely on to liven up action sequences.

Though it should go without saying, a sword is not an axe. Swords are not designed to cut down trees or chop wood. They are not meant to be used as pry bars or hammers either, for that matter. Always use the right tool for the right job.

Do not attempt to chop branches with your sword. Such an activity is guaranteed to damage your sword. Axes and machetes are well designed for this with the weight of the steel concentrated over the point of percussion. When you strike a firmly fixed object like a tree or a thick branch with a sword, a great deal of the blade projects past the object being cut, causing the blade to bend or torque. It should be pointed out that the Japanese, who believe in a lot of practice with the sword, used thick bamboo. The bamboo was resistant to a cut, but didn't have the rigidity of a tree, and so would not have damaged a valuable blade. For a Japanese warrior to cut in to a tree would have been unthinkable.